Don't worry everything will be fine
by TaecMin
Summary: "Oh my god, Tony?" She said as she brought her hands up to her mouth. "What's wrong Pepper?" Bruce asked while walking toward the scene. "Oh," He whispered and his eyes flashed green for just a second before disappearing into its natural brown color. de-aged fic.
1. Chapter 1

… **I don't know why I wrote a Christmas story during the middle of summer. It just happened. .**

**I have a little writer's block going on, so I decided to start a different story to show people that I AM NOT DEAD! Sorry if this stories a little lame… Any who I hope you enjoy! **

It was a cold December night, well truth be told it was only four thirty but the skies said otherwise. I was strolling along the city back to Stark Tower with a large cup of coffee in my hand which I bought from Caribou. New York was brightly lit with lights glistening everywhere. Everyone was preparing for the big holiday aka Christmas which was next week. Everywhere I looked I could see parents carrying loads of bags and neatly wrapped boxes while the children were playing outside building snowman's or throwing snowballs, something that I never experienced. When I was a child I was too intelligent and was home schooled which prevented me from making friends and playing with other kids my age. While they enjoyed playing with action figures and boards games, I would be tinkering with electronics or building a robot. For Christmas I wouldn't have gotten a toy or clothes instead I got manuals and textbooks mainly about weapons and mechanics (Howard was preparing me for the family business). In my childhood there was no need for useless toys that were for babies. Around the age of four I became bored of reading books and wanted to play, so I decided to build my own toys and hid them to the best of my abilities. As the years went by I started to care less and less about Christmas and by the time I was ten years old, Christmas turned into any other ordinary day.

"_What about Santa?" _A kid asked me at boarding school. _'What about him," I thought 'He's just a fat guy who carries junk,' _and simply shrugged my shoulder in response.

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Tony arrived at the Stark Tower and entered the elevator pressing the button to go to the pent house. When he arrived at the floor the doors opened silently as he stepped into the open room that was filled with the Avengers plus Pepper and Rhodey.

"Hey Tony where have you been?" Rhodey asked.

Tony shrugged "Around"

"Well you got here just in time for set up" Clint said as he got up from the couch.

At that statement Tony arched an eyebrow "Set up for what?"

"Where have you been Stark? Living under a rock? Don't you know what next week is?" Natasha asked.

Well of course Tony knew what they were talking about you didn't need to be a genius to realize that. Before Tony could open his mouth to say something Pepper interrupted, "Tony doesn't do Christmas."

Tony glanced over towards Pepper where she was sitting on a couch in front of the TV with a Stark tablet at hand as everyone else in the room, minus Rhodey stared at Tony wide eyed with disbelief.

"How could man of iron not enjoy such celebration?" Thor wondered

"Seriously, how could a little rich boy not enjoy Christmas as a child?" Clint asked

Tony lifted his gaze from Pepper to glance at everyone around the room and shrugged, "I guess the Christmas spirit is weak within me, but you kids have fun now, daddy will be downstairs." At that he turned his heel and headed back towards the elevator and left the room.

The Avengers were left in the room silent looking at each other while Pepper continued to look through her tablet and Rhodey looked down at the boxes of decoration.

"Well might as well get started" Rhodey broke the silence and walked over to grab a box and took lights out.

Pepper set her tablet down and started to walk towards Rhodey to help with the lights. She smiled as he handed her a bundle of multicolored lights.

"Who's going to go and pick us up a tree?" Pepper asked facing the Avengers

The Avengers stared at each other dumbfound unsure of what to say. Pepper sighed and said, "Look I know everyone's a bit confused at the moment, but trust me when I say this, Tony's a complete idiot." Both Rhodey and Bruce nods in agreement out of their own experiences with the 'genius'.

"I would be greatly honored to pick this tree of yours milady." Thor boomed

Steve nods "I remember in the past when I went to get my family a tree, it was a lot of work but it was worth it. I'll go and help to."

Pepper smiles and takes her phone out of her jacket "I'll call Happy to come over and pick you up in twenty minutes."

When Pepper finished making her call she turned to face everyone in the room "Okay so we have Thor and Steve getting the tree, me and Rhodey will takeout and sort all of the decoration while Natasha, Clint, and Bruce put lights up." Everyone nodded with agreement and started to do their assigned jobs.

The lights were up relatively fast because a majority of them were put up by Clint and his bow and arrows. And Natasha used her assassin abilities to jump to high places and place decorations everywhere. Bruce on the other hand was getting his job done the 'old fashion way' using a ladder, hammer and nails. Each nail was knocked in with precision and each decoration was placed carefully multiple times.

Within an hour the entire lounge area of Stark tower was decorated impressively. Clint, Natasha, Bruce, Pepper, and Rhodes took a step back and stared at the room with awe as they approved of their masterpiece.

Moments later the emergency stair doors opened as Thor walked in carrying a humongous tree with Steve tailing the end of it.

Everyone in the room was staring at the tree wide-eyed, because the tree was at least sixteen feet tall.

Pepper cleared her throat, "Well I suppose I should go and order more lights and ornaments."

The rest of the people in the room nodded in agreement without taking their eyes off the tree.

"All right!" Clint said clapping his hands together, "Where are we going to put this baby?"

Bruce pointed to an open space behind the couch, "How about over there?"

Thor and Steve nodded in agreement and carried the tree behind the couch and placed it upright on the granite floor. The tree stood a couple feet away from the ceiling and fit in the large room perfectly.

Thirty minutes later the elevator doors opened and a woman dressed in a business attire walked in with a couple of large bag in hand.

Pepper grins and walks forward and offers a hand shake, "Thank-you Maria"

Maria sets the bags down on the floor and walks forward to shake her hand, "No problem Miss. Potts"

"How is everything going at the company?" Pepper asks and shakes her hand.

Maria sighs, "Everything is a bit chaotic, and I can't understand how you do it. Everyone at SI misses you and we can't wait to have you back in the office after your Christmas break."

Pepper gives her an understanding look and offers her a cup of hot chocolate. Maria politely refuses saying she should hurry and get back to SI before things become troublesome.

With that being said she says good bye to Pepper and to the Avengers and headed back into the elevator.

**LINE BREAK LINE BREAK LINE BREAK LINE BREAK**

The garage brightened with life as the billionaire entered clapping his hands which echoed for a couple seconds in the open room.

"J.A.R.V.I.S. you up?"

"For you sir, always." Tony smiled upon hearing his AI reply.

"A'ta boy."

"How may I assist you tonight?"

Tony opened his mouth to say something but soon closed it having to think of an answer. The only reason he came down to the lab in the first place was because he didn't want to be reminded his terrible childhood memories.

_It was Christmas morning and six year old Anthony woke up feeling like any other day. He never had the joy of celebrating Christmas with his mother or father, mainly because his father didn't believe in many things unless if it could be proven. The idea of God and Santa was just a ridiculous joke to him. But since he loved or liked Maria he would allow her to give him gifts only if it was approved by him first. After years of only receiving textbooks and manuals Tony gave up hope and instead wished Christmas would never come. _

'_Tony dear wake up,' his mother opened his bedroom door surprised to see he was already awake. She walked over to his bed and sat on the edge placing a warm gentle hand on his shoulder. _

'_Merry Christmas dear.'_

'_Why?' Tony muffled into his blanket. _

'_What?' Maria asked not being able to hear him._

'_Why do we bother celebrating a useless holiday?' His voice cracks in a strangled sob. _

'_Oh Anthony dear, you know we love you,' her voice was filled with pain because there was nothing she could do to make him feel better. Anthony was a child. He was a child of a millionaire. He was well behaved and was well educated and deserved a gift that he wanted for once. No child would want to receive books on theories or formulas. That was equivalent as to telling them they weren't good enough. _

_She remembers when he was four and wished for a train set. He was jumping up and down with the same hope every child had when Christmas rolled by. That little moment brought butterfly in her stomach for just a fraction of a second because she knew she couldn't get him that. Not without a violent fit from her husband. He would never approve of it. _

_When Howard noticed how unappreciated Tony was of his gifts he yelled and abused the little child, telling him that he should be grateful that he even gets something. He would snatch the books out of the child's hands and throw them back at him until he started to cry. His mother would always get up and try to calm the older man while motioning for Tony to his room with sad eyes. Tony would sprint towards his room clutching his ears so he couldn't hear his father's voice. Once he got in his room he grabbed his blanket and crawled under his bed shaking with fear. He would close his eyes and imagine something else to escape reality. _

'_Honey?' A soft came from the door. Tony heard the footsteps come closer and realized that they were his mothers. He wiped the remaining tears from his eyes and slowly crawled back out from his hiding place. When his mother spotted him from under the bed she exhaled with relief and bent down to lift young Tony into her warm embrace. She felt him shake under her hold as she sat down on his bed and felt sorry for him, because she knew he deserved better than this. It pained her to see her baby get beat by the very man she fell in love with years ago, before him company started to corrupt him. She felt tears prick her eyes, but she couldn't cry. She had too strong for his sake. _

'_s-sorry. I'm sorry,' Tony mumbled against his mother's chest as he cried. _

'_Oh dear, there's nothing to be sorry about.' His mother choked out._

'_You know I love you very much right?' She wrapped her arm around Tony's head pressing him closer to her. She felt him nod into her before snuggling closer together. _

**LINE BREAK LINE BREAK LINE BREAK LINE BREAK**

The sound of something slamming into the ground managed to snapped Tony back from his thoughts as he turned his head towards the source of the sound.

Tony nearly fell backwards from his stool as he identified the intruder. It was no mistake, those green eyes.

"Loki," He growled.

"Stark. What a pleasure to see you again." His slick voice echoed into the room.

"What do you want? Weren't you supposed to be in prison or something is Asgard?" Tony reached for his bracelets that were placed next to his tablet.

"Oh, don't get me wrong. I am simply an illusion. I thought I should leave you a little gift for the holiday. Maybe you'll appreciate this one a bit better than your fathers," slowly but surely the corner of his lips rose into a grin that did not look good in any way.

Tony's hands curled into a fist as he took a dangerous step towards the god.

"Didn't your parents ever teach you to stay out of others heads?"

"Relax Stark, I was just doing some… research."

Before the billionaire was given a chance to speak, Loki's hand reached out towards his direction and started to glow green. He heard Loki say something, but he was too mesmerized by the glow on his own body to make any sense of it. For some reason he started to feel a bit tired and was on the verge of passing out, but before that happened Loki took a few steps until he was face to face with him and that smirk on his face was really starting to piss him off.

"Enjoy life Stark. Oh and Merry Christmas," and then poof he was gone, and so was I.

**LINE BREAK LINE BREAK LINE BREAK LINE BREAK LINE BREAK LINE BREAK LINE BREAK**

When the elevator door closes J.A. .S.'s voice fills the room, "Excuse me but Sir has had an accident downstairs in his workshop and acquires some help."

Bruce frowns and looks upwards at the ceiling, "What type of accident?"

"It would be best if you see for yourselves." J.A.R.V.I.S. replied.

Immediately everyone headed towards the elevator and crammed inside pressing the button to go down to the basement.

When the elevator doors opens Pepper was the first stroll out and punch the password into the keypad.

Everyone stopped in front of the workshop door looking around.

Pepper frowned when she couldn't see her Genius, Billionaire, Playboy, and Philanthropist, "Tony?" She called out.

"Miss. Potts Sir is currently lying unconscious fourteen yards away to your left." JARVIS informed.

Pepper nodded and walked around the table intending on finding her drunk boss lying on the ground, but what she saw was something she would have never have imagined would happen in her entire life. He breathing hitched and took a step back out of shock.

"Oh my god, Tony?" She said as she brought her hands up to her mouth.

"What's wrong Pepper?" Bruce asked while walking toward the scene.

"Oh," He whispered and his eyes flashed green for just a second before disappearing into its natural brown color.

"Holy shit Stark. What crazy experiment were you working on now?" Clint asked peaking over their shoulders.

"No it's not possible. There's no way that this is possible, in fact it's impossible." Bruce muttered slicking back his hair.

"Wait my shield brothers and sister, I sense something wrong here."

"What is it?"

"I feel the presence of magic here young Birdy," He huffed.

"Arrg, stop calling me that already!" Hawkeye dreaded that name. He'll have to remember to give Tony a beating for that later.

"I do not understand, is that not what Man of Iron said was your warrior name. You should be proud of such name."

"mhmmp mommy?" Tony said rubbing his eyes with his too big shirt sleeve.

Everyone in the room whipped their head around to face the billionaire with anxious eyes. Tony looked as if he was seven or eight years old and he had large chocolate puppy dog eyes. His hair was dark blonde rather than his usual brown hair and the arc reactor was absent.

"Awww," someone said in the back, but they were too busy eyeing the child to care who said that.

"Tony?" Pepper asks with caution.

Tony flinched back and looked up towards the group with shock and fear.

"Who are you?"


	2. Chapter 2

**Wow I definitely was not expecting that many follows and likes as well as the generous comments. Thank-you for all of your support, I'll try to update as much as possible. If you have any suggestions for future stories feel free to pm me! I'm a huge fan of Iron Man and Bruce Banner . Love it! Perhaps next time or maybe in this story. .**

Everyone was too speechless to say anything. I mean seriously they were still trying the grasp the fact that Tony Stark was a child… A child. How the fuck did that happen? Wait was this even Tony? Well yes of course it was him; there was no mistake in those eyes filled with brilliance even at such young age.

"Who are you?" The child blinked asking again when they failed to produce an answer the first time. He asked with genuine curiosity although he seemed a bit hesitant about it. Young Tony was the complete opposite compared to the older snarky billionaire. They would be lying if they said they weren't surprised of the turnout of this situation. They all thought that Tony was a loud mouth annoying brat when he was a child and got everything he wanted. They were quite shaken when they saw the fear in the young boy's eyes when they called out to him, so they discreetly decided to approach this problem in a more sensitive way.

Bruce, being the most relaxed for obvious reasons walked up in front the boy and crouched down smiling one of his most gentle smiles that he would show to his patients in the third world to make them feel comfortable when treating them and reached his hand out to invite him towards him.

"Hey Tony, my name is Dr. Bruce Banner but feel free to call me Bruce. And these are our friends," He said as he pointed to each member, "That's Pepper, Clint, Natasha, Thor, Rhodey, and Steve."

"Our?" Tony asked in a faint voice as if he didn't want him to hear.

"Hmm yeah of course, we're your friends."

"But I don't know who any of you are." He said frowning. "Where's my mommy?" He asked looking around.

Bruce looked back at Pepper and at the group and decided to make something up.

"They went out of town for a board meeting and won't be back for a while. Your mother left you in our care and said that she loves and will miss you."

Tony stopped looking around and un-fisted his tiny little hand and mouthed an 'oh'. His shoulders visibly sagged and you could tell he was saddened by the absence of his mother.

"Don't worry we'll have a lot of fun here as well," Bruce assured as he brought his welcoming hand out again towards Tony.

Tony stared at Bruce's hand as if it was going to shock him or something and looked up at his eyes which were warm and gentle, very safe-like for some reason similar to his mothers and Jarvis's. And after some hesitation he reached his arm out to intertwine his fingers with his.

At this Bruce smiled because even if Tony was de-aged he still trust and believed in Bruce even if he didn't know it. Bruce swiftly lifted Tony up, who tensed up for a moment, and held him against his body so his head was resting on his shoulder. Tony was surprised when the man lifted him up because only his mother did that, so he tensed up out of reflexes, but relaxed soon after when he detected no danger and for some reason he started to feel a bit tired and yawned.

"Looks like some body's tired," Pepper said while walking around motioning for Bruce, "Here follow me; I'll lead you to a spare guest room."

Bruce nodded and everyone piled into the elevator. They arrived at the pent floor where they were led into a large guest room that was easily the same size as your average apartment. Bruce walked over to the large king-sized bed and pulled back the deep brown covers to lay the boy inside. Once he was sure Tony was comfortable he stepped back to take it all in. There was his de-aged science bro. lying in a huge bed sleeping with clothes that were three times his size bigger.

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After they placed Tony into the guest bed they all met in the living room to discuss the recent turn of events. None of them were sad, mad, or happy. They were just confused.

"Sooo, Tony's a midget." Clint said earning an elbow jabbed to his side from Natasha, "Fine, fine, he's de-aged, but how did that happen?"

"Thor said he sensed magic, right?"

"Aye that tis' correct Dr. Banner. It was powerful and well-cast. The user was no-doubt skilled indeed."

"Do you know how long it'll last? I mean as much as I like Tony I prefer to hang out with his older much more cocky version."

"I agree with Bruce. I need Tony to run Stark Industries and he can't even maintain eye contact with anybody the way he is now. Can you imagine how the press will react when they see a child walking around next to me at work?"

"You can always draw a fake mustache on him. I'm sure that'll fool them." Clint said smirking.

"And his height?"

"He's always been short to start off with. They'll hardly see the difference OW! Stop it Tasha geez."

"He was taller then you, so I wouldn't be talking if I were you Clint. Anyways Thor do you know how long it'll last for?"

Thor nods, "Aye Lady Natasha, even though this magic is strong I feel it slowly fading away."

"So in other words, this magic will slowly disappear over time?" Bruce asked.

Thor hummed in agreement. "At the rate it is fading it should be completely gone within a month, no longer."

"But when did this all happen and why?" Pepper asked motioning her arms in a circle to exaggerate her point.

Natasha was replaying the past events in her head to find any possibilities, but returned blank. Clint was completely off subject and was brainstorming new pranking ideas for the de-aged billionaire, snickering often with determined eyes that were creeping out the people present in the room. Pepper was thinking of different ways she'll kill Tony when he returns normal and Rhodey just sighed as if this was normal and happened on a daily basis (Ahhh the great joy with being friends with a stupid mad genius). Steve was sitting still in the room looking around at everyone, not quite knowing what to do with such a heavy atmosphere. One false move and they could explode atmosphere. Thor was, well Thor looked like he was hungry because he was frowning at his stomach and often glanced at the kitchen as if he wanted to grab a box of Poptarts and munch upon them.

Then after what felt like forever Bruce's head snapped up followed by an, "Aha!" which snapped everyone else out of their thoughts. And thank god it did because Natasha was on the verge of pulling her hair off her head from frustration of her thoughts appearing blank. But most importantly why was because Clint was formulating prank number sixty two and his face was beginning to resemble a mad man's expression.

Bruce spoke before anyone could ask, "J.A.R.V.I.S. Can you play back you video feed from the time when Loki broke into the tower? Before the Hul- The other guy attacked him. Preferable when Tony encountered him here in the pent house." Bruce doesn't remember all of Tony's drunken conversations, but one in particular irritated him a little. Apparently according to the drunken idiot he was not suited up when he was conversing with Loki during the Alien invasion.

"It has indeed been recorded into my systems, would you like to play it for you?"

"Please, that will be great."

Soon after a giant projection screen scrolled down from the ceiling and the lights dimmed slightly.

And there it was.

_Tony walked down the assembling line to disassemble his suit as he stared down Loki. _

"What the, Stark! How could you be so carless?" Rogers scolded the screen.

"I don't even know why I'm still surprised," Clint said as he rubbed his forehead. While Bruce's eyes were still trained on the screen searching for something.

"_Please tell me you're going to appeal to my humanity," Loki said without even caring._

"_Uhhh… actually I'm planning to threaten you," the genius made his way to him personal bar. _

"What does Man of Iron think he is doing, he should be running."

Natasha snorted, "He needs a lesson on how to threaten the correct way."

"_You should have left your armor on for that." _

"Ditto!" Clint agreed. Steve raised his eyebrows at the term.

"It means 'agree' Cap."

"_But, let's do a head count here. Your brother, the demi-God; a super soldier, a living legend who kind of lives up to the legend; a man with breath-taking anger management issues; a couple of master assassins, and you, big fella,you've managed to piss off every single one of them."_

"Does Man of Iron have no fear?" Thor looked at around a little disappointed.

"Apparently he doesn't," Steve sighed. He expected a little more from Stark.

"_That was the plan." _Thor frowned.

"_Not a great plan. When they come, and they will, they'll come for you."_

"Well would you look at that, he is kind of smart," Clint said and every one snickered a bit.

"_I have an army."_

They wouldn't forget that moment when they witnessed the hoard of them squirming their way out of the portal to bring destruction upon their home. The very thought of it flamed anger in their core.

"_We have a HULK."_

"Huh?" Bruce was not expecting that and neither were the Avengers and they just smiled at him. They knew how much Tony looked up to Bruce.

"_I thought the beast had wandered off."_

'He did,' Bruce said to himself.

"_You're missing the point. There's no throne, there is no version of this, where you come out on top. Maybe your army comes and maybe it's too much for us, but it's all on you. Because if we can't protect the Earth, you can be damned well sure we'll avenge it."_

Everyone in the room nodded furiously at that statement, agreeing with Tony. Before they saw how dangerously close they were getting to each other. They fell still when they saw Loki lift his scepter up towards Tony's chest.

"_How will your friends have time for me, when they're so busy fighting you?" Loki smirked as the tip of his scepter clinked on Tony's chest._

"Stop!" Bruce yelled. "Right there," He pointed at the scene.

"It must have happened when his scepter hit Tony's chest. The arc reactor must have alternated the effects." Bruce said as if he was proving some type of scientific theory.

"Ahh I see what you mean Dr. Banner. My brother's magic indeed could have been alternated from the foreign object within the Man of Iron's chest."

"Okay well at least now we have all of the variables and all we have to do is wait and over time it'll fade."

Thor nodded.

"Well I guess there's nothing we can do at the moment. It's late and we all need some sleep. Tomorrow is definitely going to be an interesting day; we'll need all the energy we can get." Bruce said sighing.

"I agree with Banner. Let's all call it a day rest up for tomorrow," Steve said in his commando tone.


	3. Chapter 3

**Hey guy's I know that this story is skewing away from the actual movie, but that's sort of the reason why I'm writing it. Also, I did mention at the first chapter that this story will be a bit lame if some of you didn't catch that. I write because its ****fun****! I thank all of you who are enjoying my stories and please continue to give me your feedbacks. (:**

Steve was the first to wake up at six o' clock in the morning for his routine jog around the city. Then at seven it was Pepper who picked up her phone to make a few quick calls. Clint and Natasha were up and ready for some early combat training at seven fifteen. Bruce woke up later at eight thirty because he stayed up late the previous night thinking until three. And Rhodes apologized and left last night in War Machine because of some bomb threat in the Middle East.

Bruce yawned as he lazily trudged his way to the kitchen. He was greeted right away by the Demi-God who was fishing through the cabinets for his limited edition Christmas pop tarts and judging from the wrappers on the table it wasn't his first box. Bruce walked towards the refrigerator and looked for something eatable to eat and after some careful consideration he pulled out a box of assorted berries and made his way to the sink to wash them. About halfway into washing his fruits he noticed something felt off but he couldn't quite put his tongue on it. His brain took a while to reboot in the morning like an old 90's computer. He almost face palmed himself with his bowl of berries when he remembered.

"Miss. Potts, the delivery man has arrived with your package and would like to know where he should place them."

Pepper looked up from her phone and smiled, "Thank-you JARVIS, you can just send him up here."

"He shall be up here momentarily."

Within the next minute the elevator door slid open revealing a young man pulling a load of boxes on a wagon with a clip board in his other hand.

"Miss. Potts?" He called out.

"Right here," She put her phone away and got up from the table to make her way towards him. He handed her the clipboard and asked her to sign it near the bottom to confirm her order. Once that was taken care of he started to unload the three boxes and said good-bye before re-entering the elevator.

"Soooo," Clint started, "This is-"

"Clothes, children clothes to be specific," Pepper said while opening up the first box that was filled with t-shirts, pajamas and dress shirts. The second box was filled with shorts, sweaters, and dress pants. While the third and last box contained shoes, toys and books.

"Speaking about children, where's Tony? It's almost nine o' clock," Steve wondered looking around.

"Sir, is still in the guest room Mr. Rogers," JARVIS informed.

"He's still sleeping?"

"… Sir has been awake for three in a half hours." The AI answered in an exhausted-like tone.

'_Why?' _ Bruce wondered to himself and looked over to Pepper who noticed his question. She nodded in response obviously understanding what Bruce wanted to do.

"Me and Bruce will go and get Tony. The rest of you guys just do whatever you would normally do and we'll meet up with you guys when it's time for lunch, got it?" Pepper said facing the group and motioning for Bruce to help her bring the boxes to the guest room.

"Sounds good Ma'am," Steve said as he headed towards the gym and soon everyone dispersed into their own place.

**LINE BREAK ITS BECAUSE WE'RE CONNECTED ITS BECAUSE WE'RE CONNECTED LINE BREAK**

Pepper knocked on the door a couple of times when they arrived at Tony's temporary room.

"Tony? Its Pepper and Bruce, do you mind if we come in?"

… Nothing. They let a minute pass and there was still no response. Pepper looked at Bruce with concerned eyes. Slowly Pepper opened the door because Bruce was holding two boxes and they both glanced at the bed which appeared flat on the surface. Bruce set down the boxes and walked over to the bathroom which was also dark and empty. On his way back to the door he spotted a little black spot in the corner of his eye and turned his head to get a better look. It was Tony; he was curled up in a ball facing the wall with his tiny fists covering his ears. Bruce frowned and asked JARVIS to dim the lights to 30%. When the lights came on Tony flinched and curled up tighter. Bruce wondered what happened to the genius to make him act this way, because compared to his older self he was a bit too scared and well, awkward and everyone knows that that's not a Tony Stark, but rather more like a Bruce Banner characteristic.

Bruce was use to this type of behavior because it mirrored his own when he was a child. Every night when his father consumed alcohol his mood would swing for the worst and he would beat up his mother, because she would protect her little Robert from the pain. And like most child they would go and hide in their comfort space and for Bruce that was curling up his closet in his room until his mother came in with new bruises and fresh cuts telling him everything was alright. She would smile in most beautiful and loving way towards him that would warm up his whole heart and make him cry in his mother's arms.

Everyone just assumed that Tony had the average rich kid life with the best family, boarding school, loads of money, the brains, and the future of taking over a multi-billion dollar company. To most people that would be considered the perfect life, so they never bothered to re-think the unexpected.

After thinking for a bit Bruce got up a little and grabbed the smallest blanket from the bed and gently laid it on top of Tony before scooping him up to cradle him in his arms.

Bruce rose to his feet still cradling Tony in his arms and turned to look at Pepper.

"How about we clean Tony up first then go to the kitchen?"

Pepper sighed and smiled, "Sounds like a plan. I'll bring some clothes into the bathroom after I get done sorting everything out in the closet."

Bruce nodded and made his way to the bathtub. Carefully, while balancing Tony in one arm he turned the knob to let out warm water. Once he was satisfied with the temperature he pressed a button on the panel to plug the drain so the water won't escape.

Pepper walked in setting down a red polo, jeans, underwear, socks, and sweater next to the sink, then helped Bruce undress Tony who was still quite and unmoving. He was awake but his eyes were focusing on space, even when he was placed into the tub.

Then out of nowhere the little child's voice echoed in to room, "Am I one of those abandoned child?" He asked.

Both of the adult's eyebrows rose, "What are you talking about sweetie?" Pepper wondered.

Tony sagged his neck downwards and studied the ripples in the water, "My father hates me and decided to give me away, right? I know I'm useless because he told me so every day. I should be happy, right? Now my mommy won't get hurt anymore, right? But why do I still feel pain here?" He asked turning his head to finally look at Bruce and Pepper while pointing to his chest.

"Never mind," Tony said before either of them could speak, "You probably don't understand."

A minute of silence passed.

"Listen," Bruce said, "I know what you're going through. In fact I understand perfectly well."

"How?" Tony asked curiously.

"I was just like you when I was your age. My _dad_ wasn't the greatest and my mom was my hero." It's been a long time since he last called him that and it almost felt foreign.

"Let's just say he was not fit to be a parent."

Tony seemed to believe him because of his jerked nod in agreement.

"Alright boys, how about we get you out of here and dressed so we can grab some breakfast." Pepper said while heaving herself up. She opened a cabinet and took out a towel for Tony.

Once Tony was dressed they walked in the direction towards the kitchen hand in hand while talking about blueberry pancakes.


End file.
